In a story that you can file right under the department of “good actors who don’t get enough work,” Variety informs us that Lukas Haas and Kevin Durand are getting into the horror game with Dark Was the Night, an indie picture which Jack Heller will start shooting in Southampton, New York this Sunday. Caliber Media Co., Sundial Pictures and Preferred Content are all producing.

Written by Tyler Hisel — whose script made the Black List a few years ago — the picture depicts the Long Island town as one in which “a nearby logging company has disrupted the balance of the life in the woods. From the frozen forest, an evil will emerge and threaten the local citizens with their only hope being the local Sheriff and his trusted deputy.”

And now, with my unassailable powers of prediction and instinct, I’ll posit that Haas and Durand have those respective parts. But don’t count on it! Okay, regardless, it sounds like it could be a good little time, so long as the tone and atmosphere are nailed down by this debut director.

Oh, and if you haven’t picked it up by now, Variety is all over the casting thing today, seeing as they’ve also got the news that Adrianne Palicki (G.I. Joe 2) will make an appearance in Brad Copeland‘s CollegeHumor-produced Coffee Town. Already starringGlenn Howerton, Josh Groban, Steve Little, and Ben Schwartz, the Cheers-liked comedy centers on “thirtysomething underachievers” who spend all their time in a coffee shop.

Through this setting, there’s an intent to explore “the ethos of the freelance and the unemployed who use coffee shops as makeshift offices.” True to the setting and subject matter, Palicki has been cast as “Becca, a coffee-loving nurse who Howerton’s character has a crush on.” Shooting will begin next week, although the release format still hasn’t been decided on.

What do you make of either project? Could they be successful indies, or is there too much familiarity in the concepts?